Prisoners: Sentencing

Gavin Shuker: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people were serving a custodial sentence of  (a) five years or fewer,  (b) four years or fewer,  (c) three years or fewer,  (d) two years or fewer and  (e) one year or less for each category of offence in the latest period for which figures are available.

Crispin Blunt: The following table provides information on custodial sentences in prison establishments in England and Wales by sentence length band and offence category as at 30 September 2010.
	These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
	
		
			  Custodial prison population as of 30 September 2010 by sentence length and offence category 
			   Sentence length 
			  Offence category  Less than five years  Less than four years  Less than three years  Less than two years  Less than one year 
			 Violence against the person 7,033 5,991 4,846 3,535 1,761 
			 Sexual offences 2,315 1,753 1,232 720 212 
			 Robbery 3,513 2,486 1,500 619 143 
			 Burglary 5,053 4,188 2,954 1,526 507 
			 Theft and handling 3,719 3,517 3,207 2,768 2,047 
			 Fraud and forgery 1,225 1,066 903 698 324 
			 Drug offences 5,866 4,370 2,677 1,085 229 
			 Motoring offences 877 857 823 759 547 
			 Other offences 4,851 4,383 3,849 3,234 2,234 
			 Offences not recorded 190 159 128 107 92